Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Netflix Review: Killer At Large: Why Obesity is America's Greatest Threat

No cookie, no peace!



One of the great things about Netflix is that it allows you to find movies, particularly under promoted documentaries. Having recently had my brain turned to mush by Micheal Bay, I looked for something a little bit more intellectually nutritional. And I found it in Killer at Large.

Hopefully, if you have a Netflix account, you can watch it here. (If not, just search for it on Netflix)

Killer at Large is an examination of the rise of obesity in America and government's involvement with this rise.

Perhaps why I enjoyed this documentary was that it provides further evidence to two of my theories as to why America is going to hell in a handcart.

First we are unable to assess risk. While a hundred thousand die each year from obesity related disease and only a handful die from terrorism, it is Bin Laden and not Archer Daniels Midland that we fear.

Oh, and speaking of, secondly, that Archer Daniels Midland and the big corn industry is destroying America one cob at a time. OK, billions of cobs at a time.

Not only are they forcing high fructose corn syrup down our throats (why do we have to import our Coke from Mexico just to get real sugar in it?) but, not mentioned in this documentary, they forcing corn in the form of "green" ethanol into our cars. And every step of the way receiving huge government subsidies.

Killer at Large is very good at establishing the problem of obesity, particularly the epidemic of childhood obesity. And it does a good job of trying to show the Federal government's complicity with the rise of obesity. But what I couldn't buy is that government is the answer. Yes we should end farm subsidies and corporate subsidies. But the responsibility for childhood obesity is largely parental.

Yes, it's easy for a non-breeder to point the finger at parents. But there was a time that parents controlled what kids ate and how much exercise they got.

And this goes back to how we assess risk. The nightly news has us believing that if we don't watch our kids 24/7 a crazed rapist/murderer will snag them and kill them. So we no have a kids driven to school when they live only blocks away. We have kids playing XBox instead of kick the can in a empty field.

Well, maybe government can do something. While in Europe I really enjoyed how walkable the cities were. Yeah, they are old and kinda hafta be walkable. But instead of spending billions on more highways can't we spend half of that on mass transit? It's en embarrassment that, not only is there not mass transit out to DFW airport, but that we're at least 3 years away from it happening. DFW has only been open for 35 years.

Oh well. At least I live in one of the few walkable areas of Dallas. Yeah me!

  • many breasts (all man-boobs)
  • 1 beast
King Wally says check it out.

A-



3 comments:

jtingermany said...

You are the soul of brevity, my King.

swcook said...

What does that mean? The review is too short? Please be more constructive with your feedback, please.

jtingermany said...

ok, the problem is that your actual review is hidden by the youtube embed. all i could see was the 1st line and the breast summary.

i am actually ok with farm subsidies -- if they go to individual farmers. Subsidizing ADM and their ilk is no different than subsidizing GM or Citi. Ok, bad examples.

You're preaching to the choir with me, but i like the sermon!

hyderatn: What rural Tennesseeans say they do when they're thirsty and want to sound smart.

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